CATTLE CALL

The current project I'm working on is our most ambitious so far. And by far the most fun to edit. I find conversation sequences more enjoyable to edit purely because of how difficult they are, and there are plenty of them in this one. 

We filmed at Annex Theatre here in Seattle. The colors. THE COLORS, you guys. Such a cool building. And such a groovy cast. 

We used smoke machines (which smell pleasantly like caramel, I discovered) and utilized a lot of different lighting techniques that we've never explored before. The space itself doesn't have really any windows to speak of, so the atmosphere feels very enclosed and claustrophobic, which was perfect. 

I was pretty ill the second day of shooting. I think I successfully covered it up. Or not... and I grossed everyone out. So, it was a real lesson in "pushing through" (a.k.a.: taking tons o' advil and going through what felt like hundreds of cough drops). 

This will be the longest short we've done so far! And it makes me ugly laugh. Which is a good thing. 

THE BEACH HOUSE

The story I'm about to tell is about a filming experience that was simultaneously the most positive (exhilarating) and negative (hectic) I've experienced thus far. 

The little script that I wrote, The Beach House, was shot in September of last year. And now it's a finished film! With sounds and credits and everything! 

Allie as Charlotte

Everyone who was involved was stellar, and I couldn't have done it without them. Quite literally because if we had one less person, none of it would have been possible to execute. Due to a miscommunication on dates and times (which happens) we were short one actor the night before we were going to be heading out to Whidbey Island. A little stressful, but I just had to figure it out. My boom operator/P.A. was a trained actor so I chose to solve the problem by taking on the sound responsibilities, and figured I'd just have to do a little more running around than I was planning. 

And run around I did! I am never filming anything with so few hands ever again. Ah, the lessons we learn. 

My Director of Photography was talented and enthusiastic and always eager to help. Everyone meshed really well, and it made me really happy to see it. They could entertain themselves while I was running around and flailing my arms for something I had put down and lost. One less thing for me to stress about. The dynamic was positive, and at the end of the first day of shooting I slept terribly on a mattress of death, but I slept terribly with a grin on my face. 

The second day of shooting, I was sleep deprived and anxious about finishing on time. I juggled the clapper, boom, and notebook in my hands, with a marker in my mouth and headphones on my ears. I got tired of taking them on and off, which lead to a lot of yelling on my part. My fancy noise canceling headphones were just too good at canceling all that noise. It wasn't ideal and things moved really slowly at times when I found myself sat on the floor trying to figure out what to do next. But, yet again, everyone was in high spirits and making each other laugh. Even if I wasn't a part of the laughing and good times, I was relieved that it was happening around me. 

Frank as Paul

That's the one thing I didn't expect to happen while directing. The isolation. The first day of shooting I felt like I was a part of the group, and excited and involved in this thing I had put together. The second day, I felt a bit like an outsider; a child with good intentions pressing their face up against the window of a pet shop, looking at all the puppies tumbling around inside. That's a weird metaphor, I realize, but it is kind of true. There's a strange sense of loneliness I was struck by on the final day of shooting. Why was nobody listening to me? I love nutter butters too! Don't you want to know what I thought about the season finale of True Detective? Stress can do funny things to a person.

If I were to do it all again, I would do things very differently. But I am really proud of my little film, and would work with everyone again in a heartbeat. 

Work in Progress

I wrote a script! Waiting to hear back about possible grants, so at the present moment, not much is going on.  Hopefully this bad boy will be in and out of production by the end of September. More to come once solid pre-production begins. 

100% Frankenstein

I also potted a plant, made some tea, took some photos and made this blog post. I'll be sad when July is over. Why you ask? Because that means I'll have to retire this image from my wall:

Is anybody surprised that I have a Star Trek calendar? Didn't think so.

GILLS | 2nd & 3rd Shoots

Everything for Gills is shot, edited (mostly), and waiting on animation and soundtrack. Our schedule had us working 9pm - 4am on the last day. It took me about 4 days to recover because I am wildly out of practice of staying up late. I used to be so good at that. 

Chunk of skin (I mean prosthetic) 

Even though we ended up being on a really tight schedule, we tried not to rush. Having started out with the 48 Hour Film Festival, I definitely have a tendency to feel a sense of impending deadline. This shoot was an exercise in slowing down. I really appreciate that everybody involved was willing to work so late into the night. We worked well into the hours where your body starts to get "wobbly" tired. 

Gettin' sweaty

This was our very first time working with prosthetics, let alone any kind of make-up. For me, at least, waiting for makeup was always a welcome snack break. Adam did a really great job.

Also, a word of advice: eating junk food between the hours of 2am - 4am is not wise. Your body will not appreciate it. 

Adam giving Pilar some "haggard level 3". *Not pictured: Keara neck deep in a bag of pita chips*

Hands and gills

I had the opportunity to make some fake frog eggs. They were disgusting and awesome. Tapioca pearls, jello (red, green, blue) and water apparently make perfectly gross and slimy eggs. The blue and red helps to tone down the radioactive hue of straight up green jello. The first batch I made was way too solid and way too neon and made for some pretty hilarious test shots. Plus, it tasted pretty alright (that is a lie I just told).

Wiggle, wiggle

That thing that I never prepare for and always happens, of course, happened. The house we shot in is over a hundred years old and has had little to no re-enforcements made to the decks and stairs outside. We shot on one of these decks and were somehow surprised that they shook. Due to our rigging, we didn't always have the ability to use our 7" monitor. These shakes are sneaky ninjas that aren't always visible on a standard view screen. I know it's easy to say, "It's not that bad, I'll just edit around it later." YOU ARE A FOOL, PAST SELF.  We actually really lucked out and it didn't have much effect if any on the pacing, however, you are not always that lucky.

That porch: "The Shakiest Thing That Ever Shook"

Next up: cleaning jello out of my carpet.

GILLS | Building the Set

I spent the larger part of the day emptying out my study so we could get started on making the set for Gills. The smaller part of the day I spent watching Cupcake Wars because I'm on a diet and I'm also a masochist. 

So many banana boxes.

We managed to get just a lot of banana boxes from the QFC down the road. I think we only used about 3 of them in the end.

The sun decided to come out and made the apartment hot and uncomfortable so I procrastinated and wandered around while playing with the camera. I was beginning to feel the same brand of stress that comes with moving. I have way too much junk and I don't want to get rid of any of it. Space be damned.

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Avoiding work and playing with exposure

My day was made exponentially better when my friend left this sweet little plant on my doorstep. It also gave me a good excuse to take more pictures.  

Beautiful new plant friend from beautiful old human friend. (disclaimer: she is not actually old)

We ended up substituting cut up paper bags for most of the cardboard we were planning to use. The banana boxes we got had a series of large holes throughout them which was no bueno. I watched 8 consecutive episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Later that night I had nightmares about banana spiders. 

"Jabroni" 

This is more or less what the set ended up looking like, minus some more embellishments on the walls. I'm really good at making real messes, so I was surprised by how difficult it was to make naturally looking "fake" messes. I'm still pretty pleased with the way it turned out. 

Nearly done

Next up: Actually shooting the thing!